Bob Bromley

I guess the draft should be coming out very soon, obviously, if the final is expected by the end of the month. This time frame stretches us, I would say, based on that, into the spring, and yes, we want to get it right to have a strategy that public groups can support and be ready to resource the strategy adequately.

The budget address noted that funding for a strategy would be brought forward as a supp before the next main budget, which is good news. Since we’re gathering comment on the final draft strategy now, will the Minister commit to contracting peer review from outside experts so that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Previous programs to help businesses acquire renewable energy equipment and technology have been cut back. These programs promoted business prosperity and success, by cutting the consumption and high costs of electrical and heat energy. Given our reliance on fossil fuel, greenhouse gas production is also cut, an important bonus. But even with adequately funded programs, many businesses can’t take advantage because they lack the seed funds to go ahead. Programs provided up to $10,000 for projects of up to $40,000, but first you need to have the $30,000.

The savings...

That’s good to know. Maybe that’s something the department could share with committee at some point just to see what those reports said. I’m glad efficiencies have been found and worked on. I guess I would just ask the Minister to be sure and include that, then, in the education renewal. That’s all I had.

I appreciate that information. Perhaps the Minister could provide, at his convenience, a comparison with the current fiscal year so we know where the changes have been made. More specifically, the House approved $1.25 million in the current fiscal year in addition to what was originally proposed in the mains for this fiscal year. I’m wondering if the Minister will provide an accounting for how that $1.25 million was expended.

Just one more follow-up on the early childhood development worker training at Aurora College and where we might be going with that. Obviously, I think we want our people looking after our children, especially in early childhood where so much is happening, to be fully qualified, and of course, we would need to pay them as such. Now, I’ve heard concerns that we don’t want to train workers because we don’t want to be paying those salaries. This is obviously of great concern to me. I think probably everyone would agree our children are our number one resource here. Could I get the perspective of...

Who does their technical work then? Do they hire their own? How does that work?

Thank you for that information, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Devitt. My concern is, early childhood development is quite different than education. There is an obvious need for some integration at the later stages with the education. But it is so important, as the Minister knows, to, I would say, just about all of our broad government goals that it needs to stand in an autonomous way. Is there a plan to take this early childhood development aspect out of the school services division, which there is a record of completely overwhelming the early childhood development aspects, and developing their own...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister has heard committee talk about renewable energy programs, energy efficiency programs and the need to get them into Aurora College. We’ve talked about that for a number of years. I’m not aware of any yet. Maybe I can get an update from the Minister. The Minister also has said that in the interim, the renewable energy aspects and energy efficiency aspects could be built into existing programs such as for electricians or plumbers, these sorts of things. Perhaps the community administration programs and so on. Could I just get an update from the Minister on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did want to follow up on top of page 10-19, the large item there, education authority contributions. I’d like to just find out where we’re at with the TSC chargeback. We have learned that we are starting to bring our health authorities into the fold with TSC. The common comment from the Auditor General is that departments aren’t necessarily providing the standards and leadership that they could be for our authorities.

This is one area I think that could be very helpful, is if we’re all using the same system. So communications, and I think we’re working on the...

No questions.